The Matrix Version 2
by LMAJRJSM
Summary: My name is Ash and i'm a hacker. I've stumbled upon something bigger than me. What should i do?
1. Chapter 1

My name is Ash and I'm a computer hacker. Never been employed by any of the big firms but they have shown interest. I work alone and live alone. I graduated from MIT getting degrees in computers.

I was walking around the city at the moment and I felt like I was being followed. I was supposed to meet someone at a nearby club. I didn't know who this person was because they had contacted me from a payphone this afternoon. The conversation was kind of strange but in a way it made sense.

"I know who you are Ash Malone and I know what you know." A voice came at the other end.

"Who is this?" I asked the stranger on the other end.

"I want you to meet me at the club that is nearest to where you live tonight at nine o' clock and come alone." The voice stopped abruptly after that and I put the phone down.

'That was weird. But maybe it could be something very important. I should go and check it out.' I thought to myself.

I walked towards the club and took stock that I was going to meet a complete stranger. I decided the hell with it and entered the club.

The spot lights were blaring around everywhere as the dance music continued to play. There wasn't enough space in the club so I was kind of struggling to get around.

When a good song came on more people came onto the dance floor.

I went down and sat at a table and then looked at my watch and saw that it was just about to hit nine o' clock. Maybe this person wouldn't show up and I could just forget about it.

"Good to see that you are punctual." A voice came from behind me. It was a woman. She had black hair and blue eyes. She sat down beside me. "Are you Ash Malone?"

"Yes I am. Why am I here?" I said back to her.

"Because you know something and people are following you. Am I correct?" She said to me.

"Yeah I've only just noticed that." I said to her. I looked around and saw nothing. "Whoever was following me must have given up."

"No I need you to come with me now." She said. She got up really fast and forcefully grabbed my arm and moved us to the back exit. "They'll be after you so for your own safety you need to come with me right now."

"Where are we going?" I said to her trying to get my arm out of her grip. We were headed towards her car someone opened the door from the inside.

The man who opened the door had no hair but had a moustache and a beard opened the door. "Hey! Is this another new one Trinity?" He said as we got into the car.

"Yeah Cypher we need to get her back to Morpheus and the exit." Trinity said and I just looked out the window.

/\/\/\\/\/\/

The next thing I knew we were at some big house. "Out now." The other female occupant said to me. I got out and immediately got wet. "Into the house." She said to me and I walked up the stairs.

The house was big and dusty like it had been abandoned years ago. I saw the caked on dust attached to most surfaces. I was pushed into another room. The wallpaper was a green pattern and most of it was falling off the walls. I saw two large armchairs and a table with a glass of water seated in the middle of the chairs.

"What is this place?" I said to them. I was made to sit down in one of the chairs. The people left and I was alone in the room. None of them answered my question. Why was I here? What did they want with me? Why did they say I was important?

Maybe soon I would find out.


	2. Chapter 2

Matrix 2

Disclaimer: I do not own The Matrix.

Chapter 2

I saw a man come into the room and sit down in front of me. "Do you know who I am? I know who you are Asher Thomas" He said to me.

"Are you Morpheus?" I said and leaned forward so that I could see him more clearly. "I've read about you in newspapers."

"Good." He said to me. "We don't have much time. You're a smart woman, I know that many agencies have been after you but you refuse because you feel like you don't belong there. I've read that you're a valuable hacker to have on side and we need you."

"Am I in trouble or something?" I said to him. I was confused because he had said that they needed me.

"You will be if you don't come with us because programmes called agents will use you to get to us and we know you'll be able to find us." He said to me. He was so calm in the face of everything.

"What do you mean programmes?" I said to him. This guy had officially tipped the weirdness scale in my eyes.

"At the moment what you perceive to be real is not. We are in a reality created by AI. Its called The Matrix." He said to me.

"So everything I have ever known in my life isn't real?" I replied to him not totally believing what he had said. "So every memory I have ever had is just something that a machine showed me in my head and I thought that it was real?"

"Yes I am sorry but that is true." Morpheus said to me. "I know you want the truth now."

He took out of a container two pills. Both were cylinder shaped but one was red and the other was blue. "You have a choice between finding the truth and just continue living in a reality where you have no freedom. You take the blue pill and you wake up believing whatever you want to or you take the red pill and I show you the truth. That is all I offer." He said to me.

I looked at him and considered what I should do. I wanted to know the truth so I immediately decided what to do. I took the red pill.

"Remember I can only offer you truth." He said.

"I understand." I said and put the pill in my mouth and took the water that was on the table. 

"Follow me." He said and got up. I got up and followed. We entered a room that was filled with weird equipment. Everyone who had been in the car was there.

I saw the woman Trinity and she motioned for me to sit down in the chair. "Take off your jacket first." I did that and then sat down in the chair. 

They seemed to be doing some sort of procedure that they were all familiar with. I just sat back in the chair. I noticed a distortion in a broken mirror and I reached out to touch it. The glass seemed to turn to a form which made it attach to my finger.

"Have you got a family Ash? Do you know what its like to rely on other people and realise that you do not have to stand alone?" Morpheus said. He was watching his team work.

"I never had a family. I never knew my parents I've been alone my entire life." I said to him. I couldn't very well lie because this man could kill me if he had the chance but for some reason I knew that he wouldn't.

I felt weird and everything went black for some reason. I was no longer in the room. I woke up in a place I didn't even know. All that I knew was gone and I was no longer in the comfort zone of my life. I was somewhere where I couldn't control what happened to me. I was lost and I wasn't sure what to do now.


	3. Chapter 3

**The Matrix 2**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Matrix **

**Chapter 3**

I broke through this protective layer and breathed in deeply. I looked around and found the world in complete darkness. Above me there was a storm raging. It looked like it had been brewing for quite a while.

I looked to the sides of me and saw other tanks like the one I was in but people hadn't woken up. My eyes hurt like I was just using them for the first time.

I felt something open up underneath me. I fell into the opening and was whirling around in a series of tunnels in the end I was at the bottom of wherever I was. I was splashing around in the water trying to straight afloat.

Just as I felt the last strength I had leave me a hatch above me opened and light came pouring out. It was like a beacon for me trying to survive. Some sort of claw was sent down towards me as I started to go under when it grabbed me.

'Where am I?' I thought to myself as I ascended into a bright light coming up from overhead. I was afraid because this was a new world to me and I didn't particularly know how to react because of all that had gone on already.

There were people surrounding me as I was brought into the source of the light. There was the woman Trinity and Morpheus was there too. "Welcome to the Real World." He said to me.

I woke up next in a room and I had clothes that I wouldn't normally wear on. I felt my head and found that I still had all of my hair. I looked on my arms for some reason and found that they looked perfectly normal.

I heard a knock at my door and saw Morpheus come into the room without me even saying come in. "Its good to see that you're up. We didn't think that you'd make it." He said to me.

"How come I don't have plugs in my arm like most of you do?" I said to him.

"We don't know that exactly ourselves, you have one in your head though. We don't even know how you still look the same as you did in The Matrix. But you have my word that we will find out how you still look the same." He said.

I looked at him and then got myself up. I almost fell over when Morpheus came to my rescue and stopped me from falling to the cold metal floor. I looked at him. "Thank you for that." I said to him and he helped to the door.

"Come on I would like to introduce you to the rest of the crew." He said and let me go as I followed him into the main deck of the ship.

He told me about the ship and pointed out the crew when we were in the main deck. I looked around and felt like how could this be real. But my reality was different now because everything had changed.

I wasn't really listening to him at the moment because I was thinking about what he had said to me when I first met him about whether or not I had a family.

He didn't really notice that I wasn't listening but from an early age I was always looking for my parents. I was always told that they'd abandoned me and didn't want to bother with me. I never had any memory of them.

They left me when I was 4 years old. It's like I can't access the memory or they've been erased from me. Maybe I have to do something to make them come back or maybe there's nothing I can do.

This was the reality now and I had no choice but to live with it and find out as much as I could to survive in it.


	4. Chapter 4

**The Matrix 2**

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Matrix**

Chapter 4

I still in this strange reality if I thought that it wasn't real then I would have done a wizard of oz thing and snapped my heels together and closed my eyes wishing to be somewhere that was not real.

I couldn't be like that. Not anymore. It was like I had finally scraped away at the rose tinted glasses I must have been wearing all these years and was finally now starting to understand about the world.

I was suddenly put into a chair which looked kind of old and rusty and my feet were locked into place by some clasps. "You need to relax." Trinity said as she plunged this weird like probe into the back of my head.

It hurt for a moment until I closed my eyes and thought about everyone that I had forgotten. Like I could do that.

The next thing I knew I was inside some kind of white space with Morpheus. He was wearing some kind of reddish brown suit and had Ozzy Osbourne type glasses on his face.

I was wearing a similar outfit to what I had worn on my last day in The Matrix. I was wearing Black jeans, a red shirt and a black jacket. I was also wearing boats on my feet.

"Where are we?" I asked him as I looked around and saw nothing but the white space around me. It was like being in a stark white room.

"This is the Construct. We use this to give us everything we need including clothes, guns and training simulations to use in The Matrix." Morpheus said.

"So we're inside a computer programme?" I say to him. He just nods to what I have just said. For some reason this wasn't one of those things that could usually freak me out.

"Yes." He said. "There is something about you that can be useful to both us and the agents of The Matrix. They will try and hurt you but we won't let them. You have to be ready to face them. You will be able to face all the fears head on."

"I do not know what you want me to do. I mean I'm here because I wanted to know the truth and all the time you are constantly saying that you need me. What is it that I can do?" I said to him not really understanding what my purpose now was.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

After having the chat inside of the construct programme Morpheus showed me the real world. I flinched when he told me about Artificial Intelligence and machines destroying the world.

I looked up at the sky and saw it turn different colours. But what made me totally freak out was that the machines were using humans as batteries and they were plugged into The Matrix and none the wiser to what was going on.

When we were pulled back into the Real World and were unplugged from the machine then I got up and just headed back towards the room I had been given.

I sat on the hard bed and just thought about what had happened. Would my parents still be in The Matrix somewhere? Or were they out already and had forgotten all about me.

I heard the door open from the side of me and I just looked up. It was the new guy. He looked familiar to me but I couldn't put my finger on it.

"I see Morpheus brought you here as well. My name's Neo." He said and held out his hand.

"Name's Asher." I said to him and shook his hand. I just talked to him about what had happened and how I ended up here. I even told him about the fact that Morpheus thought that I was going to be useful.

He didn't tell me much because I highly doubted that he could. I may be a young woman but still I knew when people felt defenceless against something they felt they had no control over.

I was here for good and I had to put up with it.


	5. Chapter 5

**The Matrix 2**

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Matrix.**

Chapter 5

Neo had left me alone and I was processing everything in my mind that had happened today. Morpheus wasn't exactly telling me what I was supposed to be used for. I wasn't a possession in my own mind but maybe to others I was.

These Agents just looked like people in horrible brown suits. She had only seen them in the programme that she had been in earlier with Morpheus. They didn't look that threatening but according to Morpheus, they could be very dangerous.

In a way if I was back in The Matrix then I could quite possibly be in the hands of these Agents. I should have been more grateful for the fact that I was safe from evil people. The thing was that I didn't feel much at the moment.

I couldn't go into my feelings without making myself feel despair and loneliness. The fact that I felt so alone was not one of those things that I didn't usually feel.

When I used to work as a hacker I had to always look out for myself and not form attachments to anyone. Otherwise I could very well put them in danger and possibly get them killed. I didn't need that on my conscious.

When I was younger I was just a kid but I was a lot smarter than the average kid. It must have been something I had inherited from my parents.

I wasn't this posh kid with a great education. I had to live with what the system gave me and I learnt to put up with it. I had to give and take and I learnt about that when I was treated so badly.

I had to work in order to make the best of my life. But I remembered something all the way through my school days: The things worth having in life are always the hardest to get.

Everything I wanted was not in my reach though: A family. I never had that and that is why I couldn't bear to think about.

I grew up into a world that wasn't giving me choice about what I wanted to do. I had to be a certain type of person but still that wasn't enough sometimes. It was like I was in a metaphorical jail cell and I couldn't escape regardless as to whether or not I had good behaviour.

There wasn't much more to tell about myself but that was only because I didn't have much of a life. I mainly concentrated on my work and didn't want to think about feelings and things.

I just sighed and let myself fall down on my side and then let sleep rule me for once.

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

I woke up the next morning to a sound coming from outside my quarters. I opened my cloud filled eyes and rubbed them so that I could focus more on where the sound was coming from.

The door opened and in came Tank who was the operator on board this ship. "Did you sleep?" He asked me as I got up.

"Not much." I said back, not really in the mood for small talk. "Why have you come down here? Is there something that you want?"

"Yeah I need for you to come up to the main deck, we need to start getting you prepared to go back into The Matrix again." He said to me and got up and went out of the door. He motioned for me to follow him.

I got up and followed him as well. If I learnt everything that I possibly could from whatever this place had to offer me.

\/\/\/\\/\/\/\

I sat down in the same chair I had yesterday. I was hooked up into it but this time I didn't end up inside a programme. "Will this hurt?" I asked Tank as he started to push buttons on his screen.

"A little bit but it gives you a kick and you get to learn every type of fighting that is known to man kind. It'll give you the edge when you fight The Agents." He said to me.

I just closed my eyes and gave him a thumbs up. He got started and just begun to put the knowledge in my head. It did hurt but it was like a rush and I did want more.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

It must have been a few hours later when he had finished. Morpheus walked in and just observed what was going on. When it was all done I just opened my eyes and was about to get up when he came up to me.

"I want to see what you have learnt. Show me." He said and he got himself plugged in as well.

We ended up fighting in what looked like a gym. He ended up telling me about how I could be faster if I wanted to be. But it seemed that he always had the upper hand for most of the time we were in the programme. I wasn't too sure that I could actually beat this guy.

"Don't just think you are faster." He said to me and got back into a fighting position. "Know you are."

"I don't think that I can do this." I said to him. Totally unsure about what a person like me could do.

"You have to know you can do this." He said to me and headed towards me attempting to hit me. I kept avoiding the hitting but there was still the advantage he had over me with his size.

After a few near hit attempts I finally started to fight back and managed to nearly hit him. I stopped when I was sure I could actually take him down. "I want to go back now." I said to him.

He seemed to understand where I was coming from but didn't seem to be 100 on me leaving but that might have been because he wanted me to help take down The Matrix or something. I didn't know and maybe I never will but I was not sure for the moment.


	6. Chapter 6

**The Matrix 2 **

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Matrix**

Chapter 6

I was back in my room and just thinking about everything that had happened in that programme. It was like I could do things that I never thought I could do before. I had learned all the fighting styles that I knew I was going to need when I went back into The Matrix.

'Will I ever be able to survive these so called agents?' I thought to myself. I looked around the barren room. I could feel the ship moving under my feet. It was quite graceful but there were times when it would jut to the side and I would almost fall over.

I then sat down on the bed and thought about the comments that Morpheus had made during the training I had done with him not so long ago. He was talking to me like I knew exactly what he was talking about.

I think he must have thought that I would have understood what he was saying. Why he was talking about me being faster than I was actually going? I did manage to nearly hit him but then I wanted to stop because of everything I had felt whilst fighting.

It was as if time had stopped and I was able to manipulate it and therefore have the advantage in the fight. I knew for a fact that I wasn't ready for. I was so new to all of this that it made me feel like I was out control with the whole situation.

I laughed at this. I had been completely out of control since this whole thing started. I didn't even remember what had happened because I guess it must have been a case of repressing memories.

Soon there was a knock at my door. I went to it and turned the wheel and looked and saw Tank on the other side. "Is there something going on?" I said to him wondering why he had come to find me.

"Morpheus was kind of worried about you because you went off in a hurry. He didn't say anything else." Tank said as he leaned on the door.

"Well I just wanted to be alone with my thoughts. Is that alright?" I said smirking at him, just to make sure that he knew that I was only joking.

"Yes that's fine but I think that you should come to the bridge to tell him yourself otherwise he might come down here himself." Tank said and he motioned for me to follow him down the hallway.

I left my room and then followed Tank down the hallway and saw him head down towards the bridge. I followed but I didn't know what I was going to even say. I shouldn't have to really explain myself to anyone. I didn't owe them anything in a way.

I saw Morpheus standing there watching the green code of The Matrix play out across the screen as if he was searching for something or waiting for something to happen. I just couldn't tell with this guy.

It didn't help that I didn't know him that well. He seemed to know a lot about me but I couldn't really tell where his true intentions lay. I knew that he was a good person and he would be good to have onside.

"We always have to watch the code on the screen for even the slightest change. It could be lethal to us if we don't notice it." He said to me. Not looking but knowing that I was there.

"You could say it's like a lookout, if you know its coming then you can try and avoid it or use it to your advantage." I said to him and just looked at the code.

All that I could see were numbers and they seemed to be floating out across the screen but disappearing just as fast. There was something going on right now. But there was always something going on in that reality.

"That's right. We have to always be on our guard. What we do isn't a walk in the park. It puts our own lives in danger on an almost daily basis. We don't know what's out there but we know we have to do something. None of us can sit back and just allow bad things to happen." He said to me and just continued to just sit there and watch the code for any changes.

Maybe I could learn how to read the code but for some reason I knew that it wasn't my role to sit back – like Morpheus had said – and do nothing. It wasn't in my nature. I only hoped that my nature wouldn't get me killed.


	7. Chapter 7

**The Matrix 2**

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Matrix**

**Chapter 7**

It must have been a long while later when I decided to go to sleep. I was so tired after the day that I had had. Also looking at the code kind of does make you feel even more tired than you might have previously been.

I just left Morpheus standing there looking at the code. I didn't understand it still but that wasn't my forte as I had said before. It was just a matter of difference and I couldn't even begin to think about all the things that were inside my head.

_**I had a dream when I was quite deep into my sleep. I saw a place that was populated by humans. I saw the place as if I was there. There were great caverns with machines around protecting the lives of the people who lived here. **_

_**There was a harmonious atmosphere around and everything was at peace. It was like something good had happened and for the minute everything was safe. **_

"_**I can't believe you're still here, we thought that we lost you two." Someone said in front of me. It was a man and woman who looked like they had been born here. The man had a beard and black hair that was all over his face. His face was calm and very friendly. **_

_**The woman had a white hair band in her hair. She also had a friendly face and was smiling at me. She went off with the man and they headed off in a different direction. **_

I woke up from the dream before it had the chance to go any further than it had. I heard a noise down the corridor and figured that the others might be starting to get up for the day and do whatever they had to in The Matrix.

I rubbed my eyes for a minute and then decided that now would be a good time to actually go into The Matrix. I just grabbed my sweatshirt and put it on over my tank top and headed off to the bridge.

I saw them all heading to their different chairs in order to go and see the oracle. "You've got to come as well. The Oracle will want to see you and Neo." Morpheus said and he was then hooked into the machine.

I was hooked into the machine by Tank and he just smiled at me. "See you soon." He said and then I felt my mind going.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\\/

The next thing I knew I was in a room with all of the others wearing a slight variation of the outfit I had been wearing when I first arrived here. The only difference was that the jacket was made of suit material rather than leather. It seemed to suit me though.

"Come on we have to go." Morpheus said and he told Switch, Apoc and Mouse to stay at the location so that they could get if needed. We headed towards the car and got in and headed towards where the Oracle lived.

Everything just looked so normal as I looked out of the window. Everything seemed so different now that I had seen it from the other point of view.

The Matrix was like a caged existence you may have thought you got to make the choices but secretly you didn't have a choice.

Neo was talking to Trinity about her experience when she had gone to see the Oracle. I wasn't really listening because it would have been rude to do so.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

The next thing I knew we were inside of the apartment complex where the Oracle lived. I didn't have any idea what to expect. Neo had gone in first and we all just waited outside.

"I don't know what she'll say to you but you can either choose to listen to it or just reject it." He said to me. I couldn't see his eyes as he was wearing the glasses again.

"I guess we'll have to wait and see what happens then." I said to him. It was the only thing I could really say as I couldn't see into the future and didn't know what was going to happen.

Neo walked out a few minutes later and told me that I could go in now.

I walked into the kitchen and saw the Oracle. "You can sit down you know." She said to me and turned around and looked right at me.

"It's you." She said and just sat down right next to me. I was confused about her words. How did she know me.

"What do you mean it's me?" I said to her. "I'm sorry but I'm confused about why you are so happy to see me."

"I knew that you would be coming here soon. They are going to need you soon but there is more to it than that. Something will happen to you that you have to let happen. It will near enough make you want to die but you cannot give up." The Oracle said.

I just looked at her and saw that she was indeed telling me the truth about what was going to happen to me. She looked scared like she could see all of the fear inside me and that sooner or later it was going to culminate into something bigger.


End file.
